Gainesville Diary: Sydney McLaughlin 22.39 and Steven Gardiner 20.20

Sydney McLaughlin, photo by PhotoRun.net

McLaughlin 22.39 and Gardiner 20.20

GAINESVILLE (USA, Mar 29): Florida Relays started with superb 200 m times. On the women side teen star Sydney McLaughlin clocked huge PB 22.39 (+1.5). It is fastest U20 time since 2003 and fourth best of all-time in that age category. One could think what she can achieve in her specialty 400 m hurdles with such speed. Second Joanna Atkins and third hurdles World record holder Kendra Harrison achieved the same 22.81. For the World Indoor champion Harrison also a PB, previous top mark was 23.00. Fifth in the race was the 400 m hurdles World champion Kori Carter 23.23. Puertorican 100 m hurdles record holder Jasmine Camacho-Quinn won another race with 22.59 but aided by +3.0. In the menÂ´s 200 m new personal best for 400 m World silver medalist Steven Gardiner of Bahamas 20.20 (+2.0) beating 110 m hurdles World champion Omar McLeod 20.49. In the 400 m Bahamian Alonzo Russell got 45.44 win over triple jump World and Olympic winner Christian Taylor 45.48. TaylorÂ´s last 400 m race was at Drake Relays in April 2014 when he clocked personal best 45.17. He plans to run more 400 m races in the summer. Third in the race 400 m hurdles veteran Bershawn Jackson 46.50. Jamaican Shawn Rowe won the 400 m hurdles in life-time best 49.17. In another race Bahamian Jeffery Gibson clocked 49.21 (his fastest since May 2016) over Jamaican Ansert Whyte 49.48. Women winner Grace Claxton from Puertorico achieved 56.30. GrenadaÂ´s record holder Anderson Peters won the javelin with 81.57. In high school 100 m prelims fast times for Anthony Schwartz 10.18 (+2.0) and Tamari Davis who at age of 15 improved to 11.29 (+0.5).

Best advice I’ve ever been given before a race is from this meet. I will never forget it. A man (not pictured in the back) who I often saw at meets sat by the finish line. While I waited for the baton he saw our team was in last place. He yelled to me and said “Syd, just run from your heart baby girl”. No joke in that moment, all my nerves went away and I got a new outlook on everything. We ended up in 3rd but it was the idea that we ran with a purpose that made us the #1 US team. So if he sees this, I just want to say thank you. That’s something that will stay with me forever â¤ï¸
A post shared by Sydney McLaughlin (@sydneymclaughlin16) on Aug 28, 2017 at 2:11pm PDT

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Alfonz Juck
Alfonz Juck is a husband, father, statistician, announcer, journalist, organizer, agent usw, following track and field since 1972. EME NEWS is a news service relating to the sport of athletics. It is published on daily basis with additional updates, as required. Copyright is held by Alfons Juck, TOP ATHLETICS, a.s., Krikova 10, 82107 Bratislava, Slovakia. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The redistribution and/or direct reproduction of material from EME NEWS is prohibited unless permission is given by c TOP ATHLETICS (such as being included in a subscription agreement).
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